What Time Management Skills Do Teachers Need?

I don’t know about you but I never have enough time! There are not enough hours in the day to get everything done and I hate feeling overwhelmed and stressed about something I can’t control. So rather than letting time control me, I’ve figured out a way to control my time! I’m sharing exactly what time management skills teachers should be doing!

Time management should really be a mandatory class in high school and college! For something as important as how to manage time, you’d like there would be more focus on it in schools! So what time management skills do teachers really need? The honest answer- everything!

One of the best-kept secrets to taking back your plan time is to manage the time you do have. You can’t create more time. But, learning how time management is important can solve so many issues! So what are you waiting for? Grab my free guide to the 7 secrets to save you time! Just drop your email below and it will be sent straight to your inbox!

How Time Management is Important

Want to do things you love? Learn time management. Want challenging tasks to take less time? Learn time management. Either learn to manage your time or time will manage you. 

I think my whole life can run on timers. This is probably the best time management skill because it literally blocks off time for a task. I’ll set a timer for 25 minutes to finish grading an assignment or I’ll tell myself I need to finish making copies before I go to cover a class in 15 minutes. These time blocks or timers help me stay focused and on track. 

According to Parkinson’s Law, work expands to fill the time we give it. This means that if I give myself an hour to grade something, it will take an hour. But if I tell myself I only have 25 minutes to grade, the grading gets done in 25 minutes. So yeah, timers help me manage my time. This means that I have more time to do things I love (like hiking or going out to a bottomless mimosa brunch with my friends) without feeling guilty. 

I also use timers in my classroom for the same reason! Students know how much time they have to finish their assignments and I can better use class time. If you want to grab a set timers for classroom use, head on over here!

What Time Management Skills You Need to Use Daily

I love a good to-do list as much as the next Type A Teacher but this tip is something I can do without a to-do list! I set myself up for success by ending a day successfully. I have a few tasks that I complete every day after school that helps me prepare for the next day. And these tasks have saved me so many times it’s actually ridiculous. So do something your future self will thank you for!

To-Do List

I take a peek at my to-do list and spend 3 minutes crossing things off that I accomplished that day and deciding what I need to do tomorrow. I will then write out tomorrow’s to-do list. I start by carrying over any tasks that I didn’t finish or that have high importance. This way, when I walk into my classroom next, I already know what I need to do. 

Prioritizing is so important here as I can’t get everything done every single day. So I get the highest priority tasks accomplished first and then work my way down the list in order of importance. By the end of the day, I’m only left with less-important tasks. Some of these tasks can be pushed off for a few days before I NEED to do them. Some tasks end up not being important at all, or they are something I can delegate to my team teacher or even a volunteer.

If you want to know even more about creating epic to-do lists, I have an entire blog post dedicated to this topic over here.

Tidy Up My Desk

I love sitting down at a nice clean desk. I can spend a free minute tidying up my desk and putting things away. This is actually something that I try to do when my students are packing up for the day. By putting pens in their cup, throwing away old post-it notes, or filing away a master copy, my desk looks so much nicer. A clean space to work also helps me be more productive. I’m not as distracted by things around me so I can actually cross things off my to-do list. 

How to Make Teaching Easier: Prep the Day’s Lesson & Materials

I use slides to teach so I make sure that my slides are ready to go for the next day. This usually means creating a warm-up question for students to answer as a bell ringer. I will also create a couple of slides for the lesson itself along with adding timers to any independent work tasks. Sometimes I create slides for lessons a few days in advance. This is nice so that I can just tweak anything after school to be ready for the next day.

I will also layout the next day’s copies. I use the famous 10 drawer cart to organize my copies so I simply pull out that day’s drawer and take it to the front of the room for easy pass out. I will also prepare any other materials like task cards or lab supplies. This way in the morning I’m not preparing for the actual lesson. Saves me from running all around getting copies, slides, and materials ready! 

Agenda Board

Another thing I do before I leave for the day is to change my learning target and agenda board for the next day. This is a pretty easy task as I have my unit planned out so I know what I’m teaching. I can quickly jot this down before I head out. If I’m really on top of things I change the date so it’s ready for tomorrow. This is one less thing I have to do in the morning.

What Time Management Skills You Need to Use Weekly

While the tips above are on a daily basis, I also have some tasks that help me manage my time on a weekly basis. Each week looks slightly different but these tasks help me stay ahead of the game and therefore less stressed! These tasks can be done on a particular day or just as they fit in during the week. 

How to Make Teaching Easier: Batch Your Copies

If I haven’t batch prepped the unit before it starts, I always make sure my copies are ready to go. I like to make copies on Thursdays for the following week. This saves me from printing things on Monday with everyone else. And the copier is notorious for breaking on Fridays so I like Thursdays. 

I use my 10 drawer cart to organize my copies for the week so that all I have to do each day is pull out the drawer and take it to the front of the room for easy pass out. I have also used a filing cabinet to keep a week’s worth of copies organized. If you want to learn more about batch prepping, I talk about it more in my 7 secrets to taking back your time! Drop your email below and all the secrets will be sent straight to your inbox!

Prep Materials

If we are doing a lab, I will make a list of what supplies I need to purchase over the weekend to be prepared for next week. I usually go shopping on the weekends anyway so picking up things for lessons is easier when I’m already out and about. 

If I need to print and laminate a set of task cards, I will print them at school and take them home to laminate over the weekend. That’s really the only task I’m willing to do on the weekends and I don’t do it often. But I like having materials ready to go for the week like my copies.

For math learning centers, I can switch out my math games in under 30 seconds. Click here to learn more in this blog post!

Tidy Up Student Spaces

This is a weekly task that my homeroom students help me with now. But even in elementary, my students and I would tidy up the room each week. Typically Fridays made good cleaning days. Students would put away any books from the library, clean out table supply bins, and pick up any trash they see. 

Refresh the Space

During the tidy time, I like to hang up any anchor charts as a reference or edit our table of contents for our science journals. I can fix table and desk arrangements too so that our space is ready for the week ahead. I also move extra handouts to my absent work bin during this time too. 

Update Grades

While I try to keep my grade book up to date, sometimes I fall behind on grading late work. So once a week I will go through any late work and score it. This is a task I typically do on Mondays as my students send home a grade check email on Tuesday to their parents. By grading late work each week, I actually save myself time. 

How to Make Teaching Easier with these Time Management Ideas

These are some of my favorite time management skills for both teaching and my real life! I’m always trying to save time to do more of the things I love.

10 Tips for Mastering Time Management at Work (Article)

Manipulate Time with These Powerful 20 Time Management Tips (Blog Post)

How I Manage My Time – 10 Time Management Tips (Video)

20 Time Management Tips to Super Boost Your Productivity (Blog Post)

7 Secrets to Taking Back your Plan Time (Free Ebook)

What time management skills do you use in your classroom? Share your favorite tips in the comments below or connect with me over on Instagram! And if you want more tips on how to work smarter not harder, drop your email below for my 7 secrets to taking back your plan time.